Of Darkness and Light: A Mysterious Funeral

Monday the 20th of June, year 750 of the Barovian calendar: After meeting under very unfortunate circumstances Caina, Janus, Edgar and Malcolm stay the night in the Dark Travels Inn, which is situated in Nebulus. This is welcomed after the long journey from Maykle. The next morning, when all except Caina wakes up, the group heads downstairs to get some food. While eating, Janus is distracted from his terrible meal by a funeral procession heading toward the church. Interested, Janus follows and watches the sermon being given by the local priest. Meanwhile Edgar finishes his breakfast and heads towards the general store. Upon entering, Edgar is greeted by Ilysee Ildonsheck, who is the general store owner. While paying for the items he needed Edgar notices a discolored portion of Ilysee’s arm that he keeps scratching. Concerned, Edgar inquires how he came about such a a mark. Ilysee dismisses the mark as just a simple bruise that he received from bumping into a crate in the back room.

Eventually, Caina decides to get up and head downstairs for breakfast. Meanwhile Malcolm stays in the main room waiting for the others to return. After the funeral at the church, Janus proceeds to the Graveyard along with the procession for the burial. After the priest completes the morbid event, Janus offers his respects to the mother and father, then begins to inquire about the death of the young man. The young man’s name was Micheal Moonshire and he died in Martira Bay under unknown cirumstances. After the discussion with the aged priest, Janus proceeds to the general store. Strangely, when he enters, he notices that there is no sign of anyone running the store, so Janus simply takes what he needs and leaves.

When everyone regroups at the Dark Travels Inn, Janus brings up that there was nobody running the general store. Edgar, being very concerned, leads everyone to the general store where they then find the body of Ilysee in the back room. His cause of death not readily apparent. As the rest of the group investigates the cause of death, Janus goes to get the local priest. When he arrives with the priest they are told that there were no signs of struggle or violence. Fearfull that this could be a disease brought to Nebulus by Micheal Moonshire, Janus with the aid of the priest, burned the body and poured it’s ashes in the graveyard before Ilysee’s newly planted cross. A few minutes later, dark clouds began to gather from the east, it appeared a storm was on the rise. Janus accompanied the priest to the church and borrowed a book to read during the storm. When Janus arrived back at the Inn he began to read his book at a table illuminated by the faint glow from a nearby candle. Caina started to go through her spell book as Edgar headed off to his room to get some much needed rest. Malcolm left the Inn for reasons known only to him.

It was pouring with rain as Malcolm made his way to Micheal Moonshire’s house. When he arrived, he began to think of how he could enter the abode. As he was unable to enter by the front door he intead climbed into the house through the second floor window. Malcolm spent somewhere near a half an hour searching the house for any clues, but he turned up nothing. He then left to check the general store. After a short walk, Malcom came accross the store. When Malcolm entered the store he remebered that Edgar mentioned to him that Ilysee bumped into a crate, so he figured he would start there. Malcolm decided to check out the contents of the crates. As he peered throughthe darkness at the wooden crates, one of them immediately caught his attention. The crate was from Martira Bay and inside it was a broken vial. After finding nothing else of note in the room, Malcolm then decided to search the second floor. When he went upstairs, he found the cramped room Ilysee called home. Searching the room, he found the diary that Ilysee kept. Through reading the last few entries he discovered that Ilysee received his shipments from Micheal Moonshire who worked for him from Martira Bay. Malcolm then made his way back to the Inn.

A fair while later, Janus finished his book and returned to the church to give back the book and get a new one. Caina on the other hand was still going through her spell book. When he was out, Janus ran into Malcolm in the alley by the general store. Not long after, Janus returned with Malcolm. Eldron, the innkeep, finally served them dinner while Malcolm told Janus and Caina of his discoveries he made from reading the last few entries from Ilysee’s diary as well as the vial he found in the crate. Puzzled, they all decided to get a good night’s rest before pursuing the matter any further.

Despite needing rest, Janus spent most of the night in the kitchen with Eldron, talking to him. During their conversation the kitchen window shattered. Understandably startled, they slowly approached the window to investigate. Eldron thought it was just a tree branch that fell from the tree that rested just outside the Inn, but Janus wasn’t so sure. Finding no clues inside, Janus went outside to investigate. After searching the area around the window, Janus was unable to find a branch even close enough to the window to hit it. Fearful of the worst Janus gathered Caina and Malcolm to go with him to the graveyard. Not long afterward, they arrived at the graveyard. There they found dirt that should have covering Micheal Moonshire’s grave, tossed around. They decided that it would be wise to see if the body was still in the grave. After digging up the grave to reach the bodt, they found something that shocked them: there was no body in the casket. Alarmed and confused the group searched the town but was unable to find Micheal Moonshire. Not knowing what to do next and tired from a lack of rest, they headed back to the inn to rest.

During the night, Edgar had a dream about a priest waking up in his sleep. In his dream, he followed the priest as the priest seemed to be investigating a sound he heard. When the priest opened the back door to his church the dream ended. That following morning, once everyone had gathered downstairs, Edgar told the group of his dream. After hearing about the dream, Janus quickly made his way to the church only to find out that Edgar’s dream had been a reality. On the ground by the church lay the body of the priest that had been partially torn apart. The group gathered their weapons back at the inn and returned to search the church. The group followed a bloody trail they found leading to the basement. Upon reaching the downstairs they were attacked by a rotting, animated corpse who they later identified as being Micheal Moonshire’s dead. They were forced to defend themselves and fortunately the battle didn’t last long. The group had overcame the monster but not before it was able to render Janus unconscious. To be continued………..